A Houston Methodist employee who was stabbed inside her own car at a Texas Medical Center parking garage in May has sued the nonprofit corporation and is seeking damages of more than $1 million.
The employee, Baleigh Burmaster, said the medical center was aware of complaints about safety at the Fannin Street parking garage and should have done more to make it safe before the attack.
MORE HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Houston Methodist worker escaped accused attacker by opening car door with toes, officials say
“I was fighting for my life in a car. I have a lot of physical wounds that I’m still learning to deal with every day and I have a lot of mental and emotional damage that I continue to work through every day,” Burmaster said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit on Thursday morning. Burmaster, wearing a floral dress and sitting with a box of tissues, sat at a table with her attorneys, Randy Sorrels and Sam Kinne.
“It’s almost like I’m just like a shell of who I was before,” she said.
Burmaster was a veterinary technician who worked at the Houston Methodist Academic Institute, a research facility in the medical center.
She was attacked by a man who forced his way into her car around on May 11. The man, who police identified as Perry Green, is accused of stabbing Burmaster at least seven times, while demanding her car keys and credit cards.
Green allegedly bound Burmaster’s hands with zip ties. Still, she fought back and ultimately escaped from her car by opening the passenger door with her toes.
“I always thought that I would be the type of person to just freeze,” she said. “I knew once I saw him with a knife raised that getting out of it wasn’t going to be something that was going to be easy. I needed to keep fighting.”
Burmaster suffered cuts to her face, body and ankle. Green was arrested two days after the attack and charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.
Burmaster claims the medical center was negligent in its security planning in the lawsuit filed in Harris County Thursday. According to the lawsuit, Green was in the garage undetected for hours before the attack.
The lawsuit alleges that the garage had no security guards or attendants, no working security cameras and poor lighting.
“The condition in the garage created a foreseeable and dangerous ‘hunting ground’ for the very class of violent offenders that Defendant TMC had a duty to ward against,” Burmaster’s lawyers wrote.
“You can enter this garage freely without showing any credentials,” said Kinne, one of the attorneys. “We think in-person patrols, someone patrolling these areas, at least having some sort of physical presence would have helped.”
The suit also alleges that the medical center should have been aware of dangers and risks of crime in the garage.
The lawsuit includes screenshots of a dozen anonymous social media complaints about security at the garage, and refers to crime statistics in the Medical Center area, but doesn’t identify other specific assaults or violent crimes in TMC-managed garages.
Burmaster’s lawyers said they were seeking damages for Burmaster’s wounds and mental anguish, as well as punitive damages against the medical center.
A medical center spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to questions about the lawsuit on Thursday. Sorrels said that he had been in contact with the center’s attorney.
No court dates have been set for the lawsuit.
Subscribe
There’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.
This article originally published at Houston Methodist worker sues Texas Medical Center over parking garage stabbing.